First Christian Church, Winters, CA

January 25, 2015

[PS: Here’s a new view of the Winters church.]

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was built in 1912-1913 at Winters, California. It is the work of architect William H. Weeks, about whom I had known nothing until recently. The Winters church is now Main Street Church (I’ve written about this late last year) and is undergoing a considerable amount of restoration after several years without occupants. Their website describes the central auditorium as being surrounded by auxiliary spaces that can be closed off by means of movable partitions; the call it a “modified Akron plan,” which it surely is.

Weeks may have been an adherent of the DoC denomination, because he is also credited with similar Mission Revival churches at Watsonville (on Monterey Bay) and in Oakland. There are probably others, making him a notable spokesperson for the A-A in central California and in the Mission Revival style. Here is his variant example in Oakland: